Walsall v Crawley Town preview: Can Reds beat the draw specialists?

The Reds come into the two fixtures in fantastic form, with back to back wins over Tranmere Rovers and Cambridge United on home turf.

The Reds need to transfer this home form into away games, if they are to continue challenging the play-off places and have got a good chance of doing so at Walsall on Tuesday.

Despite Walsall only losing one game all season, they have also only won two of their opening 10 fixtures, which has given them a mixed start to the season. Only one defeat at this point is an impressive stat, but their inability to win games is what is costing them at the moment. Their only defeat of the season came just last Tuesday against the Cambridge side that Crawley managed to defeat on Saturday.

The Saddlers fell to a 2-0 defeat against the side that Crawley defeated 2-1, but both sides will know that statistic will count for very little in the outcome of Tuesday’s fixture. Walsall come into the game without a win in five, drawing four and losing one.

Most recently The Saddlers drew 1-1 with Mansfield Town, with an Elijah Adebayo goal in the 49th minute securing Walsall their seventh draw already. Adebayo is Walsall’s top scorer this season, with four to his name.

The Crawley defence did an excellent job of keeping the league’s top scorer Paul Mullin quiet on Saturday and will be looking to replicate the impressive defensive display by keeping the lively Adebayo quiet on Tuesday. Tony Craig and Jordan Tunnicliffe have formed an excellent partnership along the Crawley back line and are starting to show that they can keep attacks quiet and limit them to very few chances.

The Crawley back line will be without captain George Francomb at right back, as he suffered a broken arm during Saturday’s game with Cambridge. This gives a good chance for Archie Davies or David Sesay to come into the team and put in a good performance that could potentially see them take the right back spot that Francomb has occupied so well this season.

Crawley will be looking to win their third game in a row on Tuesday but will face a tough game against a Walsall side that are difficult to beat. A draw would be the most likely result, given Walsall’s start but Crawley will be going to Walsall knowing they can take all three points if they play as well as they have in recent weeks.

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